New Hong Kong Treasury building to carry HK$2.3bn price tag

Opposition legislator calls the project ‘reasonable’, commends government for including public services in the building plan

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Nine government departments housed in the Cheung Sha Wan building will be relocated to the new Treasury building set to be completed in 2022. Photo: Film Services Office

Published: 8:00pm, 27 Feb 2018Updated: 11:04pm, 27 Feb 2018

The Hong Kong government has revealed it will spend about HK$2.3 billion on a new office building that will house nine government departments, according to paperwork filed with the city’s legislature.

The proposed Treasury building at the junction of Tung Chau Street and Tonkin Street West, opposite the West Kowloon Law Courts Building, will also house a general outpatient clinic, a 100-place child care centre and a 40-place senior centre, according to the papers submitted to the Legislative Council’s panel on financial affairs on Monday.

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The panel will discuss the plan at a meeting next Monday, before the government submits the funding application to Legco’s Finance Committee in May or June.

Wu Chi-wai said the new building should provide public services. Photo: Edward Wong

Panel member Wu Chi-wai, of the opposition Democratic Party, said the government had taken legislators’ advice to include facilities for public services in the building.

“I think this is reasonable,” Wu said. “The building should be more than just government offices. There should be spaces to cater to public needs.”

The project, expected to be completed by 2022, is one of nine buildings to rehouse 28 departments and the judiciary – with more than 10,000 staff – from the Wan Chai Government Offices Compound. The government planned to use the Wan Chai site for developing convention and exhibition venues, hotel facilities and prime office space.